"Toy Racer- Cheap but Cheerful."

Since this is my first review I’ll will start with this light and straight forward little racing game for the Dreamcast.

Overview:

Toy Racer is a spin of the DC game Toy Commander, it‘s basically an extended version of the racer sections in that game. From what I know it only came out in Europe, was sold at a very low price (£5 in the UK) and I heard that some money went to charity for each game sold. This game was designed to be played against others online, great idea, however I have never been able to log onto the server for this game, thus rendering the core purpose of this game redundant.

Presentation: 5/10

The initial presentation of this game is very basic, all you get is a title screen with 2D pictures of two characters that appeared in Toy Commander. On the plus however the options screens are neat and nicely laid out. You get a 3D depiction of the track your about to race on, and a 3D rotating model of the vehicle/toy you have selected to race with. Each vehicle has their own different performance ratings in categories such as acceleration, Speed, Grip and Shield.

Graphics: 6/10

The graphics of Toy racer are actually quite good, their an improvement over the original Toy Commander in some ways. The vehicles themselves are solid colourful and clean in appearance, and the tracks themselves have fairly well detailed and strewn with various objects such as tooth brushes and pencils and pictures. Overall I would say the graphics in Toy Commander looks well textured colourful and clean, I wouldn’t say their exactly spectacular but their easy enough on the eye.

Sound and Music: 4/10

There is little worth mentioning regarding the sound effects, it comprises of various beeps, chimes and whistles. The music is fairly catchy and upbeat and seems to fit the game well, although they are all the same music tracks taken straight from toy commander. I would have preferred there to have been some original tracks for this game.

Game Play: 5/10

The main problem with Toy Racer is that for the most part it was intended to be a multiplayer racer to be played online, as a result there is no offline race mode, where you can race against AI controlled vehicles. Offline you are limited to doing two things these are multi-player split screen races for up to 4 players and single player practice/time attack mode.

The multi-player option can be fun, and it is the only time when your able to race against other vehicles on the track. There are various power up littering the track, some give you the ability to shoot other players (With machine guns or missiles), others allow you to lay mines (These take the form of thumb tacks) others allow you two infer with other players in different ways such laying ice on the track, slowing them down, creating fog, reverse steering direction and turning their screen upside down. As a multi-player Toy Racer can be fun but there are far better 2-4 player Dreamcast games around, this doesn’t really stand out from the crowd.

In one player mode your limited racing alone around one of the 4 tracks in an effort to beat your best time. Your best timed race is depicted by a translucent “ghost” of yourself in your previous race, to improve your time you must beat your own ghost. The only power ups available in one player mode are the boost icons, you collect these to store up your boost power. By activating the boost you are able to move at twice the speed, in order to achieve the best times you must make careful use of this ability.

As in all racing games speed, handling and track design are highly important, and in these aspects Toy Racer doesn’t do to badly. The vehicles themselves handle well enough, they handle solidly, grip the track well, and for the most part you feel like your controlling a toy rather than a real vehicle, which for this game is as it should be. Speeds vary greatly from the slow but heavily armoured tanks and Bull dozers to lightly armoured and fast model F1 and Scalextric cars. Though since it you can’t be in any way damaged the slow better armoured vehicles have been made all but redundant. When the boost is activated all vehicles can move at a fair amount of speed, without the boost even in the fastest cars you feel that your casually cruising along the tracks, in no great rush to get any where.

It’s worth mentioning the bizarre physics the Toy Racers game world. The vehicles in Toy Racer can defy gravity, they can go up almost vertical surfaces. Tracks often have opposing layers different sides up, if your on one of these layers the other layer appears upside down to you, although from your point of view your always the right way up.

When racing on the tracks you must pass through various check points. You don’t have to pass these check points within a set time, though should you deviate from the path your way point marker turns read (indicating that your going the wrong way) and a 5 second count down begins, if you do not return to your route in this time your vehicle is dematerialised and is taken back to the last check point. However should you do this three times this feature id deactivated and your free to saunter around the track at will and go whether you like. This can often be a fun diversion as with the gravity defying ability of your car combined with the various objects strewn over the landscape this enables you to perform a number of tricks and stunts.

Overall: 5/10

Toy Racer is by no means the ultimate racing game ever made, but if your looking for a short light game that can keep you reasonably distracted for a few minutes from time to time then this will adequately fit the bill. At it’s cheap price this Toy Racer is well worth buying.

Pros:

-Neat clean colourful graphics.

- Good range of vehicles.

- Interestingly designed tracks.

- Fun multi-player.

- Cheap.

Cons:

- No single player race mode.

- Very few tracks.

- Uninteresting sound effects and no original music.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 01/06/04